War on Communism Tag

A timeless line from Dr. S.L Bhyrappa’s multi-layered and philosophical novel Saakshi (Witness) reads as follows: There is no greater arrogance than the arrogance wrought by a sense of self-righteousness. This quote accurately describes Yoginder Sikand’s textual barrage flowing over a course of 4373 words. So do we really need to care or pay any attention to his—with due respect—outpouring? No and yes. No because he’s not relevant anymore in the same sense as Ram Puniyani or Genocide Suzie aren’t relevant anymore, and paying him attention gives him undeserved andRead More

This post is more an addendum to Barbar Indian’s brilliant analysis of the Slimes’ shocking duplicity in covering the persistent violence at Kandhamal. For more than a few weeks, the Slimes has been running a relentless campaign on Kandhamal on its front page (in the printed edition) with the focus always on the plight of the poor Christians facing the merciless swords of murderous Hindu mobs. It devoted at least two “Sunday specials” to “examine” the issue. We know of course, what the said “examination” means. This record led meRead More

Goes by the name of Denise Spellberg. Starting in 2002, Spokane, Wash., journalist Sherry Jones toiled weekends on a racy historical novel about Aisha, the young wife of the prophet Muhammad. Ms. Jones learned Arabic, studied scholarly works about Aisha’s life, and came to admire her protagonist as a woman of courage. When Random House bought her novel last year in a $100,000, two-book deal, she was ecstatic. This past spring, she began plans for an eight-city book tour after the Aug. 12 publication date of "The Jewel of Medina"Read More

Stung bitterly, Prakash Karat has thundered that he will not support the Congress ever. Prakash Karat has discounted the possibility of the CPM supporting the Congress after the next general elections… Let’s revisit this post after the 2009 Election results are out.Read More

I rarely read a professional politician’s articles unless I know his/her record. Sitaram Yechury definitely is in my list of no-reads. As an ex-editor, I’m happy to say that my eye for detail has not diminished one bit. Terror continues to stalk the nation. In five days, 55 bombs were planted (of which, mercifully, 25 did not explode) in the three cities of Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Surat, leaving at least 53 dead. Even for a country that has brazened such terrorist attacks in the past 60 years, this has comeRead More

Forget politics. Media watching promises to be a jolly activity. Rajdeep Sardesai’s fiery journalism leads the charade. CNN-IBN seems to change colours almost every other second. From sounding out the Left in a piece that is shockingly pro-capitalist one day to cozying up to Amar Singh yet another day, the media house is zigzagging big time. Sardesai’s glorification of a third-rated power broker as a “trendsetter” is a study in ethical depravity. Not long ago, the selfsame IBN had reported Amar Singh as saying: When Prakash Karat goes to meetRead More

Via the Acorn, who in this excellent short-shrift to cricket-commentator-turned-pseudo Historian, Ramachandra Guha, adequately delivers the treatment the piece deserves. From the paragraph Nitin quotes, We need to repair, one by one, the institutions that have safeguarded our unity amidst diversity… I challenge Mr. Guha to name exactly one institution that has done all these.Read More

This mosque demolition strangely stirred extremely feeble protests–if you can call them that. Chinese authorities in the restive far western region of Xinjiang have demolished a mosque for refusing to put up signs in support of this August’s Beijing Olympics, an exiled group said on Monday. China has characteristically cared a whit for the dreaded PR impact. Like it did in the case of Tibet. This incident has re-exposed worldwide hypocrisy. Check the worldwide reactions: The US: Mum Europe: Mum India: Indian Muslim leadership: Mum The Secularia: Shh! You don’tRead More

About three years ago, Dilip D’Souza concluded that liberalization had done little to improve India’s economy. I had pointed out that his conclusion was fantastic because it was based on just one train journey and a few anecdotal evidences.Read More

Barbar Indians’ latest post carries an interesting observation The first involves the following statement by Narendra Modi: “I want to tell the government in Delhi, lets sign a year-long pact, you don’t take any money from us and donâ€™t give us any aid. And then we will show the Centre how we run the state. You all tell me, am I not right,” he was quoted as saying.” [link] It is not known if these were the exact words uttered by Modi, but calling these statements seditious is quite ambitious.Read More

If the intent of this idiotic article is to provoke, Indian Express has poorly chosen Seema Chisthi to do the job. It is notable for total lack of clarity, overt one-sidedness, and loudly communal. That it is nakedly pro-Congress is obvious because it is published where it is. But if the intent–which I suspect it is–is to offer sane advise to the Congress party, this article is an example of what not dish out.Read More

The figures first. The figures show how CPM and co have performed in the recent Zilla Panchayat elections. The same thing said in boring words. The verdict was clear: although the Left has kept its control over a majority of the seats at all levels, it has received its worst setback ever. The Left Front won 1,633 of the 3,220 Gram Panchayats in the state, down from its 2003 tally of 2303. The Opposition won 1,463 GPs , with the Trinamool bagging the major share, almost three-quarters. In the 2003Read More

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Guess who can beat Deepak Chopra’s record? Only Deepak Chopra. He’s truly nulli secundus. Despite calling his bluff on not one, but two occasions, despite the fact that he hasn’t answered any of my questions, I’m compelled to write again

I had concluded the previous post with a note on AKR’s understanding of Hindu ethics and traditional expositions on Dharma. He notes that Each addition is really a subtraction from any universal law. There is not much left of an

About two years ago, writing about how Meera Nanda proudly strutted her ignorance, I observed two things at the outset: Perhaps it takes only a Meera Nanda to have the guts to strut her ignorance with such confidence. It took

A judge makes a valid observation rooted in India’s timeless tradition. Hours later, as expected, the entire weight of the secular sections falls upon him. The secular sections are alarmed that this statement will hurt the sentiments of the minorities.

This part continues examining Offstumped’s post on drawing a line. After mistakenly equating Dharma/Rajadharma with the present day Indian Constitution, he talks about Hindu interests. It is ironic that those who claim to protect Hindu interests have done little to

Read Field Notes 1 and 2. In the first part, I mentioned that monuments “represent vibrant showcases of the deep commitment, which a nation displays in preserving the memory of people and places these nations have much to be proud

In a previous post, I had pondered aloud about the idea of India. In two words, each consisting of exactly two syllables, the idea of India is: Rta and Dharma. This idea has still prevented India from exploding into bits.

Says Tavleen Singh in this amazing column. Read it fully. Good she discovered Rajiv Malhotra but sad she discovered him this late. And eminently surprising that Indian Express allowed this on its pages. The future president of India speaks to

Preface In an interesting article on Narendra Modi, TCA Srinivasa-Raghavan (link courtesy Nitin) concludes that contextual morality is the one magic explanation for all ills that have plagued India for more than 100 years. He says …Narendra Modi is our

This BBC report barely manages to conceal its glee over a recent farce ceremony where “hundreds of Hindu Dalits” converted to Buddhism or Christianity. Dissecting the BBC’s sleazy reportage is not the focus of this post.